Well I realized that in my enthusiasm to tell all things team 1 (the W-men) that I totally ignored that team w were also in motion. After the two teams split Luis collected the vulcanologist and headed for the none volcanic transplant site.

One of the major experiments is to take earthworms Amynthas gracilis (also called Alabama or Georgia Jumpers since the move like sea snakes and really do jump when you try to catch them) from Macela, a site which has no-volcanic activity but soil

chemistry similar to that founded at the active volcanoes and place them within a site at Furnas, which is an active fumarolic area where there is elevated temperature, high carbon dioxide (coming through the ground) and high heavy metal availability. Would also do the transplant in reverse taking earthworms from Furnas and by them at Macela. We also had controls where the populations harvested from each site would be placed at the site they originally came from along site the transplanted population. Obviously, when doing this transfer we had to place the earthworms with containers so they didn’t escape, these consisted of mess bags containing soil and some organic matter (grass and rotting vegetation) for worm food….this sounds like luxury but for the Alabama jumpers being restricted in these ‘mesocosms’ is no fun so we had to have controls.

I have wondered off the point…..since we need 100+ of earthworms for the transplant harvested from a single area we new that it was going to be hard work….so it was assigned to the Iberian peninsular queen of earthworm hunting Marta Novo…ably assisted by Luis’s UG student, Hugo. Yes, Luis dropped them off with the vulcanologist and left….he will make a great manager. Seriously, Luis need to coordinate with the Azorean administration to inform them what we were doing and re-affirm our partnership with the local research institute….very important diplomacy without which we would not have permission to do science on the islands. He also collected the last member of the team, Dr David Spurgeon (CEH), from the airport.

When they eventually got to the site the Vulcanologist had completed the site survey and Marta and Hugo had >100 earthworms, but after flying all the way from the UK Dave could not be held back and matok in hand applied all his years of earthworm hunting experience to deliver the final worms need…159 in total…what a magnificent haul….then off to Furnas to link up with team 1.

Sorry there are no pics…..I haven’t got a card reader to get them off Marta’s camera….sorry, will post when technology permits.